The present invention addresses problems associated with regenerating maxillofacial bone mass to treat congenital or functional masticatory deficiencies. Conventionally, in order to restore masticatory deficiencies a patient with marginal bone mass is first treated with a surgical bone graft. Bone grafting techniques range from a harvested autogenous onlay graft to a synthetic hydroxyapatite bone mixture used to pack and build up the surgical site. Once the graft has healed, a second surgery is performed to insert the appropriate length endosseous dental implant and to restore masticatory function.
The process of bone grafting to regenerate bone mass has suffered from limited results. In many cases, at the time for surgical insertion of the endosseous dental implant, the grafting mass has significantly or completely resorbed away. One reason for the loss of this grafting material is the body's requirement for an applied stress to stimulate and maintain the bone mass. Furthermore, as documented cases have shown, if a synthetic filler is mixed with the harvested graft material, it is not uncommon for the filler material to migrate from the surgical site. This migration and degradation of the graft material minimizes the benefit of the procedure. These undesired results combined with the morbidity of the harvested area demonstrate the need for an alternative surgical procedure. In addition, these conventional multiple surgical procedures require a greater investment of time, money and available grafting materials than is desirable.